Disc Brake Splash Shield Replating ?

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dusterdemon

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I’m restoring the front suspension for a 71 Demon. I would like to get the front disc brake splash shields replated. What would be the correct plating ? Any suggestions on who could do such plating ? Thanks Warren
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You can do them with Zinc at home yourself. I plate tonka parts with zinc. But My dust shields on my car will be powder coated silver. Easy to keep clean.
 
I think they were originally galvanized. You can have them zinc plated or paint them. If you sand blast before zinc plating they come out looking close to galvanizing.
 
They were originally galvanized. The metal was galvanized 1st and then the parts were stamped out of the galvanized sheet. There is no way to re-galvanize them. Your picture looks like they are in decent shape. I would just soak them in EvapoRust for about 20 minutes. That will clean them and brighten the galvanizing. If you leave them in too long, EvapoRust will remove the galvanizing. You can clear coat them with a satin clear after the EvapoRust bath.
 
Re-galvanized mine by a large commercial outfit. Results were bad. First off, the re-galvanize is different than the original. Second- it comes out spotty, uneven, ugly. This is because, as I learned, over time the shields are exposed to various elements- dirt, oil, salt, rocks, weather- which basically "stains" the metal so that re-galvanizing them will not come out evenly, the "stains" show through, do not permit even plating. Bead blasting the parts ahead did not completely fix this. I ended up painting mine a similar color to the original galvanize.
 
Murray said:
Re-galvanized mine by a large commercial outfit. Results were bad. First off, the re-galvanize is different than the original. Second- it comes out spotty, uneven, ugly. This is because, as I learned, over time the shields are exposed to various elements- dirt, oil, salt, rocks, weather- which basically "stains" the metal so that re-galvanizing them will not come out evenly, the "stains" show through, do not permit even plating. Bead blasting the parts ahead did not completely fix this. I ended up painting mine a similar color to the original galvanize.
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Exactly, Hot dip is what is done after stuff is built, it protects well but looks nothing like the original process....

I used an ultrasonic tank to clean these up...

Before
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After
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Here are some headlight buckets I had zinc plated. I glass beaded them. If you want a duller finish that will look more like original, sandblast instead of glass bead.

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MoparMike1974 said:
Here are some headlight buckets I had zinc plated. I glass beaded them. If you want a duller finish that will look more like original, sandblast instead of glass bead.

View attachment 1715874526
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Zinc looks clean but nothing like galvanized...

If you want it to look correct find the best original parts you can & clean them up.... Here's a close up of one of my headlight buckets after ultrasonic cleaning...

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Thanks for all the replies. Lots of different ways to go about restoring them. Not sure where to find an ultrasonic cleaner near me. Think I’ll try cleaning and soaking in Evaporust. If that doesn’t work I may try the galvanized paint and news paper trick. Thanks Warren
 
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